TurboTales
by Moon Scorpion
Summary: A reporter from the Game Central Gazette interviews a hologram of Turbo for his side of the story. Will Turbo regret it or is he a hardcore 'Bad Guy? I don't know what genres to use. K but maybe later language. Please read!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! Just had this idea, don't know how it will turn out. Originally a oneshot, but it was too long so I split it into parts. I AM still writing SugarFlakes, I haven't abandoned it. As always, R&R, F&F, and **

**May the Moon shine on You!**

TurboTales.

Part One

In Game Central Station, I walk over to a blue button in the wall near the Tapper's outlet. A sign with 'Ring for Surge, only to use in emergencies' is neatly taped below it. I press it. A few seconds later, a holographic blue man appears next to me in an electric sky-blue crackle. Surge looks panicked, then he sees me.

He glares at me, taking in my clipboard, pencil, shoulder bag with GCG stamped on it and recording instruments.

"_You_ pressed this button?' he blusters, managing to sound angry despite his flat voice. 'Can you read? That button is to be used for emergencies only, not a doorbell for reporters!" He calms down a little as I smile apologetically. "Ok,' he grumbles 'what do you want?"

I do my professional smile and practiced flip-the-buisness-card-out-of-your-pocket trick. "Lizzie Inkjet, from the Game Central Gazette." Surge shrugs, uninterested. I continue.

"I've heard that you keep records of everything that goes on in the arcade, every game, every score... every character."

"Yes, that is true" says Surge.

"I've also heard that information about every character, good, bad, or NPC, is recorded in a special minor code box."

"You heard correctly." answers Surge, getting suspicious.

"Did I also hear correctly when I heard that a hologram of a gamer that has Gamed Over can be conjured up, so that it can be spoken to, but not interact with the real world?" I press on.

"Get to the point" says Surge irritably. I take a breath.

"I want to speak with Turbo".

He stares at me like I've suddenly sprouted antlers.

"T-turbo?!" He splutters. "Are you insane? He's the most dangerous virus this arcade's ever seen. And those holograms are unstable, the stronger the character, the higher the risk that the character will regenerate from the minor code box as a glitch...or worse. No, I will not let you-" I interrupt the raging hologram.

"Look, just tell me, is it possible to speak to him?"

Surge sighs. "You seem to be a toughie. Very well, I'll let you speak to him, but only for a short time, say, ten minutes, as I don't want the system overheating to let him escape."

He leads me across GCS to a small black outlet at the back of the station, with 'SURGE' written across the top in blue.

A sign with 'People Authorized by Surge Only Past this Point' hangs inside it. Surge walks in. I stand outside, wondering why I never noticed this outlet. I get startled by Surge's voice.

"Get a move on in here before I change my mind." I hurry in.

A corridor full of blue glowing cables lining the walls, like a code room, leads to a metal door. Surge approaches a keypad in the wall and types a code in. The door slides open.

Inside, hundreds of grey drawers line the walls of the round room we've stepped into. A turquoise light bathes the room, giving it the feeling of being underwater. The drawers are each labelled with the name of a game. I notice that the oldest ones are at the top, 'Space Invaders', 'Asteroids', 'Pac Man' and a dozen more are up there, most collecting dust, others, like 'Fix-it Felix Jr' and 'Pac Man' looking clean and shiny.

I notice that some of the oldest-looking drawers, like the 'Asteroids' box, have a red light winking on them. "What do those red lights mean?" I ask Surge, who has flashed up to the top shelves and is hunting through the names.

"The ones with red lights' he says, reading labels off the drawers ' are the ones with information about games that have had their plugs pulled." He flashes along the shelves. Suddenly he stops at a red-light-bearing drawer. "Aha,'he says 'got it. TurboTime"

He pulls the drawer out, rifles through it for a bit, and takes out a small red circular coin. He takes it down to me, and I can see the words Turbo, Character of TurboTime engraved on it. Besides those words, a sort of spiral and a lightning bolt with the letter 'V' next to it puzzles me, until Surge explains, "That means he was a virus, but he won't appear as one, as his virus code was wiped when he Gamed Over." He takes from a small shelf a black dish-like object with a slot in it, to fit the coin into. Surge fits the Turbo coin into the slot, connects a cable to the black dish-thing, and switches it on. "Remember,' he cautions 'only ten minutes, and then I'll stop. And be careful!"

A humming fills the room. Red flickerings come from the black thing, which begins to vibrate. A white light suddenly shoots from it.

A short figure begins to form in it. A round head encased in a helmet, racing gear in white and red, a pallid face, and yellow eyes. The figure blurs, refocuses, glitches and then refocuses again. The white light dies down, leaving only the hologram of the most infamous gamer to have ever been turned on, the most vicious of viruses.

Turbo.

**Ok, so Turbo didn't speak yet, but he will! Reviews etc. welcome! (•,-)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, my loyal Followers! *lisps* Thank you, SwizzleMalarkeyFan.**

Part 2

The hologram flickers and glitches, then settles.

The light image of Turbo holds its hand to its head, as if it's been drinking vodka for a week. A moan escapes the speakers built into the black plate, like the hologram is groaning.

"Ooooooooowie...' moans Turbo, staggering around the cylinder of light he is in. 'I feel like someone's been playing Whac-A-Mole with my eyes... Where the heck am I?" He looks around. Seeing Surge, he says suspiciously "Aren't you that electric guy who got all mad when I roared through Game Central all those years back? And who's the kooky with the mike staring at me?"

Assuming that he's talking about me, I do my routine journalist presentation.

"Lizzie Inkjet, from the Ga-" "Yeah yeah yeah' interrupts Turbo, bored. 'Whatever. Is anyone going to bother explaining why I'm here, how I'm here as the last thing I remember is being Cybug-fried code, and what the date is, because if I've regenerated miraculously I want to know what I've missed."

Surge speaks up. In his flat voice he says " , you have been Overed for exactly one year, three months and a week, you are here thanks to a backup code box in my possession, which you cannot regenerate from. You are here under the shape of a hologram capable of speech, nothing more."

Turbo perks up when he hears of the backup code, but slumps again when he hears it's regenerate-proof. "You still haven't told me why I'm here. And when I say here, I don't mean this room. I mean here as in existent."

Surge gestures towards me. "I think this young woman can answer that." a red light flashes on the wall, suddenly, and an alarm blares. Surge glances up.

"I'll have to leave you for a bit,'he says, handing me a tiny blue thing with a button on it.' If he gives you any trouble, or if you start smelling melted plastic, press it. I'll be back in ten minutes." He flashes blue, and vanishes.

Turbo floats around in his bright airspace, lying on his back, nonchalantly crossing his legs and pretending to go to sleep. He opens one eye.

"So, Lisa Penink or whatever, why are you here? I expect I haven't been dragged back from the Overed to sign autographs or turn cartwheels or stuff."

I don't bother to correct him about my name. Instead, I take out my recording material and set it up. Next I grab a notebook and pencil, stamped with the GCG logo. Turbo opens both eyes and sits up.

"Hey, you're gonna interview me?" "Um, what does it look like?' I ask, rolling my eyes. "Yes, why else would you be here?" "To entertain everyone with my dazzling sense of humour." mutters Turbo.

I sigh, and tell him "look, all I want is your view of what happened last year.

That's all. Ok with you?" Turbo shrugs. "What is there to tell? I'm popular, I get jealous, I blast Roadblasters, I get unplugged, I reappear as King Sweetyhead years later, my plan fails because of a smelly troll and his glitch-friend, I die. And I didn't live happily ever after. That's all. The End. Game Over." He chuckles at his pun. I have to admit, this guy, even though everyone says he's a bad guy, has at least a sense of humour, and not such a bad one, too.

I shake my head and concentrate on Turbo.

"All I want is your point of view. It'll make an interesting story.' Turbo looks uninterested. 'You would be famous!" I say desperately.

"I already am' he says ' as the most notorious ex-virus to have ever lived."

Even so, he smiles a bit. His teeth flash a ghastly goldish yellow.

"Ok,' he agrees at last, 'why not? It'll give them all a turn in Sugar Rush, seeing my name in the papers." "So we have a deal?" I ask.

"Deal". We shake hands, or rather, I wave mine around the space where Turbo's insubstantial arm is.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

"Ok, so where to start' begins Turbo. "I'm Turbo, from TurboTime, the greatest racing game ever!' He jokes. 'Anyway, back in the 1970-ishes, sorry I suck at dates, my game was the best, the most popular, the coolest...' Seeing me staring a bit he says defensively "Look, modesty is not a part of my long-Overed code, and besides, I'm being truthful!" I nod and continue taking notes. "So, my game was very popular. And even I'll admit it, I got a little big-headed about it. Ok, VERY big-headed. Sometimes I regret it, like when I think of Jet and Set. Yeah, they were nice,those two. Some times, when they weren't being too upset about my...erm...countless victories, we'd hang out, go over to Tapper's... Yeah, that was fun..." He trails off, remembering.

When he returns to the present time, he continues " And sometimes, when I'm feeling really ratty, I blame Mr Litwak, for placing Roadblasters right in front of us. I mean, there was a load of free spaces across the arcade, and he had to dump it in front of TurboTime. So yeah, sure I got mad. Maybe it wouldn't have been like this if I hadn't had to watch my former fans enjoying Roadblasters so much, every day, while I wasn't played with. A day in my life after Roadblasters got plugged in went something like this: hear the Arcade Opening call, get into start positions, watch Litwak open up and let the kids in, wait for one to slip a quarter into TurboTime's slot so I can start my car and go roaring round the track... But of course,' he says sarcastically 'why go and play that old-fashioned 8-bit TurboTime when you have show off gorgeous graphics _Roadblasters_!?" I nod."I see. So, you say that if Litwak hadn't placed Roadblasters in front of you, none of the events in Sugar Rush would have happened?" Turbo starts fiddling with his racing bodysuit. "Well, not really. I probably would've heard of Roadblasters anyway, and would've gotten I don't think I could be content with being second-best."

"Just out of interest, why choose Sugar Rush? There were lots of other racing games, motocross, karting, F1..."

"For starters, Sugar Rush has a monarchy, and, well, I fancied being King for a go.' Turbo smiles a bit ' Yeah, it was fun, I had a crown, a throne, a flash white kart, a load of cream cookies to defend me, and two brawn-over-brain donuts to order the cookies around! It was a bit like a strange dream, the kind you have after over-eating at a birthday or something. It was just...' He doubles over laughing 'It was really crazy, hilarious! Me, the great Turbo, being defended by donuts!" He goes on laughing, and I join in, because it does sound funny when he says it. Turbo laughs so hard that he starts glitching.

A whisp of smoke drifts unnoticed from the black plate thing

We're still rolling around laughing when Surge comes in.

He takes a look at us, the smoke, the glitching pixels, and suddenly he zips across the room and yanks the plug out of the plate. Immediately Turbo's laugh becomes distorted and fuzzy. Then his hologram vanishes.

Surge pulls out the chip. It's a bit melted around the edges.

"Look at this!" rages Surge. "Melted. MELTED! Are you COMPLETELY SCRAMBLED! You could've fried the whole circuitry! It's a good thing I was finished checking the outlets. What do you have to say for yourself?!"

I stand up, shoving my equipment into my bag.

"We weren't doing anything, just laughing! Has it been ten minutes already?"

"Yes! And that 'Just Laughing' almost Gamed Over the whole arcade!"

"Oh...,' I stare guiltily down at my feet. "But Surge, please, let me come see him again, we hardly got any of the story down!"

Surge frowns. "No, I'm sorry, it's too risky, I'm going to have to do some cooling down procedures as it is. I don't want this to become a ritual."

He flashes up to the drawers to tidy Turbo's chip away.

"Please, Surge..." I ask. Surge sighs.

"Ooooooh, alright. This is breaking the rules though, and I'm programmed by those rules, so watch it!" He flashes down again.

"But you'll have to come back in a week only, that meeting took a lot of strain on Turbo's system, and on the arcade. I'll have to set up a few firewalls, in case your interview weakened the ones we have. Come to the black outlet in a week." I run over to him.

"Thank you!" I cry, hugging him, which is even weirder than shaking hands with Turbo. Surge turns almost white, which I expect is his way of blushing.

"Hey, hey!' He says,' Watch it, you'll make me overheat! Is that a hobby of yours?" But I see he's smiling.


End file.
